Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s
largest oil company, is expanding exploration in the south of
the continent, where nations plan to reduce fuel imports.

The company has obtained projects in Albania, Turkey and
Ukraine in the last 12 months. In July, Shell and Total SA
agreed to invest about $1.9 billion to develop the Tempa Rossa
field in the Basilicata region in southern Italy. Shell also won
two exploration licenses in the Gulf of Taranto off the coast of
Italy in 2010.

“Italy is an emerging, interesting producer for us,” Andy
Brown, Shell’s director of international production, said in an
interview in London. “In terms of our prospective resources
we’ve restocked our funnel quite successfully over the last few
years.”

Turkey, which imports almost all of its energy, needs to
find domestic oil and gas reserves to ensure security of supply
and replace imports, which could cost the nation about $50
billion this year. Italy, which imports 84 percent of its
energy, plans to double the share of its domestic production to
14 percent of energy demand in 2020, according to a strategic
plan presented by the government this month. Ukraine wants to
ease dependence on supplies from Russia.

The Anglo-Dutch company in May paid $50.3 million to
Petromanas Energy Inc. for a 50 percent stake in Blocks 2 and 3
in Albania, according to the Calgary-based company.

Shale Exploration

In Turkey, Shell and state-owned Turkiye Petrolleri AO
started exploring for shale gas in the Dadas area in the
southeast of the country. Shell also started seismic work in the
deepwater Mediterranean Sea south off Antalya. In March, it
agreed with TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd. to survey the Sivas
Basin in north-central Turkey.

“We have a big exploration portfolio now in Turkey,”
Brown said. “We are well-placed.”

Shell, based in The Hague, planned to increase investment
in exploration by 35 percent to about $5 billion this year,
after raising spending 30 percent to $3.6 billion last year, it
said in February. It secured interests in frontiers such as
Tanzania, French Guiana and southern Africa.

“I see an enormous number of opportunities,” Brown said.
“We are looking around the world at the various basins and we
will obviously work hard to get access ahead of the
competition.”

Shell spent about $1 billion on acquiring new exploration
licenses worldwide during the first half of the year, it said in
July.